Posts Tagged → thank you

Groundswell Growing for Gulf Coast Benefit Concerts Thursday

gulf coast benefitThis Thursday, July 1st, music venues and activists worldwide will unite to benefit those directly impacted by the Gulf Coast Oil Spill. Proceeds from all participating venues will be donated to The Gulf Restoration Network, a nonprofit committed to uniting and empowering people to protect and restore the natural resources of the Gulf Region for future generations.

This is the beginning of a blog post that I am seeing coming flying into my google alerts and into my inbox. It’s the start of a groundswell for tomorrow night’s Gulf Coast Benefit concerts.

Current stand is 60 Meetups, about 45 which are music venues and the rest are awareness get-togethers. It’s grown to 5 countries too (shout out to the Montreal and Paris contingent in particular)! 100% of online donations and the ticket price at venues is going to Gulf Restoration Network. Those who know me, know that I look to inspire others to find ways to give back and this benefit series is speaking to the passionate resolve we all have to help others in times of need.

How can you get involved? Make a donation, whatever amount you can give. Every dollar counts. Then, how about asking 5 friends to match you? Send an email or post to your Facebook wall and say something like:

I just donated $10 to support Gulf Benefit Concerts, will you match my donation?

You can attend. Full listing of venues is on the Meetup Everywhere page.

You can blog about the events. This takes our message to your fans, supporters and friends. A blog post goes a long way! An article in your local paper helps tell more people about what we’re up to. To give you inspiration, here are links to some of the most recent press we’ve gotten. (And huge thanks to everyone below).

  • Antiquiet Interview with Co-organizer Casey Phillips:

    New Orleans has been in a fight for survival for the past decade. In terms of the deep musical spirit of the area, what’s the general atmosphere among local artists in relation to this crisis?

    The strength of the NOLA musical community is a force that some may have doubted before Katrina, but few question anymore. They have lead by example these past 5 years by refusing to let our musical heritage disappear. To me they represent pillars of strength for others to draw inspiration from. The cajun culture of the bayou regions is as important to Louisiana’s heritage as jelly-roll jazz. Right now the future for the fishing communities looks bleak, however, but I can say with certainty that the cajuns are proud people, and the backbone of Louisiana – we will not let them down.

    • Continue reading →

First Quarter Review: Acknowledgments and Influences

When I think back on the beginning of 2010 years from now, I will remember it as a whirlwind. How else can I ever explain moving to a new city, diving into new projects and clients, entering my first contest (EVER) and then winning and finding myself in Switzerland days later for the World Economic Forum then jumping back to New Orleans for festivities already described?

Through it all, my main and most important constant has been the amazing Taylor Davidson and Carl Nelson. Without these two NOLAlicious wouldn’t have happened, would not have grown and I would be experiencing this new city without them – an idea so preposterous I can’t even imagine it.

It’s not just their spirit, it’s their ability to launch new projects, take ideas and make them happen and be tremendous friends.

The influences I’ve had this quarter are many. The Young Global Leaders I met at Davos moved and shook me, and the opportunity to connect with incredible individuals at talks I’ve given this Spring including at Rise Austin and SXSW. But if I had to pick two, it would be Taylor and Carl.

And (selfishly) I want them to stay in New Orleans as long as possible, which means they need support for their projects. Let me share…

Narratively: Taylor’s a true photographer. In high school he wrapped his own film, shot it and then developed it himself. As a photographer he’s shot landscapes and weddings, creative series and had public shows and self-published a book. As a lover of photography, he knows cameras and how to promote photography and has written extensively about how to make money as a photographer, the future of the stock photo industry and where the industry is going. In addition to photograhy, he now offers his services as consulting to share experience and wisdom for other aspiring and established photographers and also online strategy and marketing for brands. His approach is analytical yet thoughtful and I recommend hiring him in any capacity you can.

The Dancing Nomad: Carl is an amazing dancer, to be sure, but the fact that he can teach dance makes his contribution to both New Orleans and the dance community that much stronger. Classes in Lindy Hop and Charleston can be had out of his Shiny Step Studios and he consults to other dancers and dance studios about how to navigate the social web and find a space online to promote their business and services. You can sometimes find him busking on Royal Street in the French Quarter on the weekends or at The Orange Couch in the Marigny. I completely recommend taking one of his classes or hiring him for online services.

Here’s to many more experiences with both of them and to more reflections and posts about those who move and inspire me in the months and years to come.

Cause It’s My Birthday Press Hits aka Mom Aren’t You Proud of Me?

Really why do we do anything but to curry favor with our parents? In my case, my mom. I told her I was up to BIG things this year and that my good deeds wouldn’t go unnoticed. So see Mom! Aren’t you proud of me? At any rate, what I really want to share is that our grassroots campaign Cause It’s My Birthday is closing in just a few days (10/31 at midnight EST to be exact). We’ve kept the donations open all month in part because we’re sooooooo close to our $20,000 goal. Yes, only $1,200 shy. That’s a few clicks of the button from people like YOU. Ahem, just saying. But also because donations REALLY do keep coming in. In large part because of press, blogs, word of mouth and we figured, hey why not keep it open all month.

I wanted to give a press update then – as a follow up to THIS post on the first round of press.

Of course to everyone who twittered, facebooked, emailed, spread the word and in general rawked and made things awesome – WOW. This literally could not have happened without everyone’s support and from our nonprofit partner Netting Nations and the net manufacturer, Vestergaard Frandsen to the families you’ve helped and from Doug and I – THANK YOU.

If you liked this post you might like:
What You Can Do To Help Cause It’s My Birthday
#fightmalaria campaign update
The Fight Against Malaria Press for Cause It’s My Birthday!

Cause It’s My Birthday Video Update

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Doug and I shot one last video about Cause It’s My Birthday before I left Los Angeles – this was meant as a HUGE thank you to everyone involved. The video is a bit long – but our focus was to roll through each city and take a moment to reflect and say thank you and be appreciative of the time and effort everyone put into making the event a huge success. After all in a 7-day campaign, we ended with over $18,000 raised. Which is astounding to us.

A few big things to note – each of our donations came from individuals, we didn’t have large corporate sponsors. So that means the donations came from YOU and YOU and YOU. Each city had it’s own look and feel and that was incredibly moving and inspiring.

Any occasion can be an opportunity to raise money or drive awareness. We used birthday and we made it BIG, but you can do something small in your school, in your community, with your family, friends or coworkers. It can be online or off. We had SO much fun with this campaign and I just can’t say thank you enough to everyone involved.

More to come, insights, feedback, tips and tricks. So stay tuned for that.

One last thing – after talking to some friends and advisors – we’re keeping the donations open though the end of the month because people are still just hearing about the campaign now. So if you haven’t made a donation, you still can. You can also click on the Paypal donation widget to the right of this page.

Until next time,
Sloane

Los Angeles Cause It’s My Birthday Pictures

Los Angeles! Man were Doug and I happy to be on the 7th day, and the 7th party and to see all of you for the Cause It’s My Birthday finale! The Ecco Nightclub was a terrific host (not to be confused with The Echo, ahem you know who you are) – thank you to Jenn Laskey for hooking it up! Ecco is the old Tokio spot (epic Sunday night dance-offs were had there in a previous life) and now it’s a GREEN nightclub. GREEN IS THE NEW BLACK to be specific.

The party would NOT have happened without Stephanie Schneider and Joey Soto to start. A big hand to Lynn Langit and Robyn Cohen for their support. Marc Salsberry for taking pictures. 200+ friends for coming out to celebrate the BIG 30 with Doug and I and also soaring Los Angeles donations OVER $5,000. I mean that’s incredible.

TOTAL RAISED TO DATE: $18,102.

Hard to believe it’s all over. Feels like such a whirlwind. Until next year? Well it’s too soon to tell. More posts will be coming with lessons learned, what we loved and what we’d do differently and connecting you MORE to the cause we choose for this campaign, malaria prevention through malaria nets.

But remember, The Causemopolitan is for all things related to CAUSE-FILLED LIVING, so if there is a topic or issue you’d like me to talk about, just ask.

Cause I L-O-V-E you all,
Sloane